Fact Check: Did a US Navy officer refuse Donald Trump’s order to strike Iran?
WASHINGTON, DC: With the end of the week-long conflict in the Middle East, which came with a ceasefire between the United States and Iran, a rumor began circulating on social media platforms claiming that a US Navy officer named Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta refused President Donald Trump's order to strike Iran. Let us fact-check the claim.
Claim: US Navy Officer refused Donald Trump's order to strike Iran
The rumor surfaced this month with a series of posts on Facebook, claiming that a Navy officer refused the president’s order to attack Iran.
According to the posts, Rear Admiral Lanzilotta refused to follow Trump's orders by issuing a 'formal legal rebuttal' that froze the chain of command until Trump's deadline to attack Iran had passed.
The post cited a so-called 'JAG memo' written by Lanzilotta that helped him avoid following orders to strike Iran from the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
The post states, “The memo reportedly cites Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits attacking objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”
“The Argument: By targeting the entirety of Iran's electrical grid and water desalination plants, the order would cause ‘mass starvation, disease, and dehydration' among 85 million non-combatants.”
“The Conclusion: Lanzilotta argued that such an attack lacks ‘military necessity' and constitutes a ‘manifestly unlawful' strike against a civilian population.”
Fact Check: 'JAG memo' is not real and is AI-generated
The 'JAG memo' is not real and appears to be AI-generated content, often called 'AI slop,' which refers to low-quality material produced using AI tools.
An analysis of the memo through GPTZero, an online artificial intelligence detector, determined a very high likelihood that the text was AI-generated.
The text was first posted on April 7 by a Facebook account named Wars and Rumours of Wars, which admitted the next day that it had been created using AI.
On April 8, Wars and Rumours of Wars posted a long disclaimer admitting, “My previous post about Admiral Lanzilotta was an experiment in AI storytelling that went a bit too far!”
Donald Trump warns of collapse of civilization
The posts followed Trump's announcement of a deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, or else, he said on Truth Social, "a whole civilization will die tonight."
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," he wrote.
"I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?"
"We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
